Founding America (Barnes & Noble Classics) - Jack N. Rakove [95]
The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer duration than the space of six months, and shall publish the journal of their proceedings monthly, except such parts thereof, relating to treaties, alliances or military operations, as, in their judgment, require secrecy ; and the yeas and nays of the delegates of each State on any question shall be entered on the journal, when it is desired by any delegate; and the delegates of a State, or any of them, at his, or their request, shall be furnished with a transcript of the said journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the legislatures of the several states.
ARTICLE X. The committee of the states, or any nine of them, shall be authorized to execute, in the recess of Congress, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress assembled, by the consent of nine states, shall, from time to time, think expedient to vest them with; provided, that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by the articles of confederation, the voice of nine states, in the Congress of the United States assembled, is requisite.
ARTICLE XI. Canada acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United States, shall be admitted into and entitled to all the advantages of this union; but no other colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine states.
ARTICLE XII. All bills of credit emitted, monies borrowed and debts contracted by, or under the authority of Congress before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for payment and satisfaction whereof the said United States and the public faith are hereby solemnly pledged.
ARTICLE XIII. Every State shall abide by the determinations of the United States, in Congress assembled, on all questions which, by this confederation, are submitted to them. And the articles of this confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the union shall be perpetual; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterwards confirmed by the legislatures of every State.
These articles shall be proposed to the legislatures of all the United States, to be considered, and if approved of by them, they are advised to authorize their delegates to ratify the same in the Congress of the United States; which being done, the same shall become conclusive.
REFORMING THE ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION
Philip Schuyler: Letter to Pierre Van Cortlandt and Evert Bancker (January 29, 1780)
PAGE 173
Alexander Hamilton: Letter to James Duane (September 3, 1780)
PAGE 176
Proposed Impost Amendment (February 3, 1781 )
PAGE 194
Robert Morris: Report on Public Credit (July 29, 1782)
PAGE 194
Proposed Revenue Amendments (April 18, 1783)
PAGE 213
Proposed Commercial Amendments: Journals of Congress (April 30, 1784)
PAGE 217
Amendments Considered by Congress (August 7, 1786)
PAGE 218
The Northwest Ordinance (July 13, 1787)
PAGE 223
AFTER CONGRESS COMPLETED THE Articles in November 1777, it hoped that the thirteen state legislatures would quickly ratify the Confederation. Only eight had done so, however, by June 1778, when the first French minister to the United States arrived in Philadelphia. Nearly three years passed before Maryland, the last holdout state, gave its assent, finally allowing the